Cavs: Ricky Rubio will definitely help, but he must be selective on 3s

Ricky Rubio will undoubtedly make a difference for the Cleveland Cavaliers, as he’ll give Cleveland a quality backup point guard option to ease the burden some on Darius Garland.

Rubio, who was an offseason trade acquisition from the Minnesota Timberwolves, has made his mark in the NBA by being a heady playmaker and defender, and he’s reportedly been a crucial leadership presence. Even with him having been bounced around in recent seasons via trade, he seemingly had a lasting impact as a leader, and Garland is pumped to learn from Rubio.

With both the on and off-floor element in mind, Rubio should be a notable contributor, I’d imagine, for the Cavaliers. Guys such as Garland and Collin Sexton should learn from him, with his passing timing and vision, and defensively, Rubio should be reliable for Cleveland in rotational minutes.

Nonetheless, it was a bit odd, admittedly, to see him firing away the way he did from three-point range on Tuesday in Cleveland’s blowout L to the Chicago Bulls in the team’s preseason opener. Rubio was not doing so on Wednesday at the Atlanta Hawks, conversely, but him unloading so often on Tuesday was, well, weird.

He did help in other ways, which I don’t discount, and we’ll see that in his minutes-share, I’d assume. Him reigning it in on Wednesday was telling to me, though, and we were seeing him be more along the lines of what one would expect, which paid off.

Cavs: Rubio will definitely help, but it’s clear he needs to be selective regarding threes.

Rubio’s impact will come as a backup 1, where he should be a productive distributor, and still should be able to help as a driver/pick-and-roll threat to some degree. He’s had 9.1 assists per-36 minutes in his career.

I’d imagine he’ll aid Cleveland in generating more threes for others, and he could be more respectable from the corners; I wouldn’t expect him to be shooting close to as many triples as he did in that first preseason game for the Cavaliers, meanwhile.

The dude can make some catch-and-shoot threes when open, but he’s a career 32.5 percent from deep in his 10-year NBA career.

Now, he was phenomenal in the Tokyo Olympics, as KJG’s Josh Cornelissen highlighted, and he even dropped 38 points for Spain on the US squad in a quarterfinal loss. Rubio was named to the Men’s All-Star Five by FIBA for his Olympic efforts, too.

That said, while everybody and their brother, sister and dog know the Cavs need to be taking more threes this season as compared to last, and they will, that doesn’t mean Rubio should be gunning like he did on Tuesday.

He’ll again take some, which I get, but his playmaking, PnR work and getting into the teeth of Atlanta’s defense was instrumental in his time out there on Wednesday, and looking to make the extra pass led to a much more effective performance from him.

He had eight points and six big assists in that one, and while he did have four turnovers and played for a stretch with five fouls, Rubio gave Cleveland quite a lift. It was preseason, but he was a game-high plus-16.

Him initiating leading to dishes to Evan Mobley, and Markkanen, for example, was meaningful with him far more decisive on Wednesday, and that was reassuring. And regardless of Garland and Sexton having their issues as playmakers thus far aside, it was encouraging to see Rubio seemingly more self-aware at Atlanta.

Moreover, one can’t overreact to preseason games, and Wednesday’s didn’t involve Trae Young, Bogdan Bogdanovic, and Danilo Gallinari, so I’m not giving Cleveland a pat on the back for a close win then.

But getting back to what we’ve been stressing here, so long as Rubio plays to his strengths, which he always has, he could be a crucial bench contributor and take pressure off of Garland. DG has struggled in preseason, and Sexton has to some degree, as evidenced by seven turnovers at Atlanta; it has been preseason, though, so let’s not freak out, folks. Forming chemistry does take some time, too.

To drive it home, however, it’s just obvious that Rubio needs to help with three-point generation in his minutes from a playmaking sense, just not with him gunning, which was odd on Tuesday. I wouldn’t anticipate to see that very often, at any rate; from Wednesday, that stood out to me.